Exclusive | Knicks slap Mamdani-backed NY Senate candidate Aber Kawas with cease and desist letter over campaign ad: False advertising

The Knicks have fired off a “cease and desist” letter to America-hating state Senate candidate Aber Kawas, threatening to slap her with a lawsuit for ripping a page out of NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s playbook and using the NBA champs’ iconic logo to boost her campaign, The Post has learned.Kawas – a Mamdani-backed, Democratic Socialist of America member who once described 9/11 as a terror attack that a “couple people did” – tried to win over voters by using a doctored version of the Knicks logo on social media posts and campaign stickers throughout her primary run, which ended with her clinching the Democratic nomination for a Queens state Senate seat on Tuesday.Brian N.Warner, senior vice president and head of legal for Madison Square Garden Sports, sent the letter to Kawas’ campaign Friday night “demand[ing]” it “immediately remove all promotional materials incorporating Knicks Intellectual Property, including but not limited to the unauthorized Advertisements, and cease any further use of Knicks Intellectual Property.”“Neither the Knicks nor NBA [Properties] have authorized the Campaign to use Knicks Intellectual Property in any way, including the Unauthorized Advertisements, which are likely to mislead the public into believing that the Campaign is affiliated with, sponsored or endorsed by, or in some way connected with the Knicks,” he wrote in the letter exclusively obtained by The Post.“The Campaign’s activities in this regard constitute, among other things, trademark infringement, trademark dilution, false advertising, false association, and unfair competition.”Kawas’ shameless bid to use the Knicks success and popularity for her own benefit includes a June 20 campaign message on X – posted a week after the Knicks won their first NBA Finals championship in 53 years.It uses a logo with the slogan “I Voted for Aber Kawas” that features the same font, orange-and-blue colors, and iconic basketball as the Knicks logo �...